When hard work is encouraged, it breeds success. When success punished, it breeds poverty.

I‘ve worked hard to get where I am in life, and it has not been easy. When I left home as a teenager, I took little but my clothes and a few knickknacks and photographs (the sum total of my possessions fit easily in the trunk of a mid-sized car). There were times in my early adulthood that I struggled and on occasion went a few days without a meal or a roof over my head.  

Still, I draw deep fulfillment from the fact that what I have today has come from my own hard work, with no help or handouts. Today I have a decent job. I own a home and two cars. Other than my mortgage, I have managed to stay debt-free for several years. I support two dogs, and we all eat well.

You see, I was raised by depression era parents whose values included honesty, hard work, and fiscal responsibility. Not a day goes by that I don’t remember those values and use them as the yardstick for all my decisions.

Eventually--through his hard work, common sense, and persistence--my father was able to rise above his meager beginnings and become a successful man. With no college education, he supported a wife and three children on his sole income, and he always kept his bills paid. He always believed that “your first bill is yourself,” so long before any Section 401(k) legislation was passed, my father faithfully saved 10% of every paycheck for the twilight years of his life so he wouldn’t be a burden to another generation.   He only borrowed what he knew he could afford to promptly pay back. He never lived beyond his means, nor did he concern himself with status symbols. He worked hard, made himself an expert in his chosen field, educated himself on fiscal matters, and made a series of thoughtful decisions that enabled his family to live the kind of upper middle class life many Americans dream about.

The heartbreaking part of that story is how much punishment I watched my father endure at the hands of his own government for his success. Prior to his retirement, the last time my father got a big raise at work, I had just turned seventeen and I remember how depressed he and my mother seemed after he received that pay increase. When I asked my mother why they weren’t excited about it, she said, “He’s in a new tax bracket now, and that means he’s bringing home less than he did before.”

I was stunned and disillusioned. How could someone work so hard, sacrifice so much, be so honest, and end up with less as a result? The raise for which my father worked so hard suddenly seemed like a hollow reward. And, at the time, poorly regulated government handouts had reached an all-time peak, and many of the people who chose to accept those handouts no longer had to live by the sweat of their own brows.

In a democratic society, it hardly seems fair or just that our government has seen fit to make itself the largest charitable organization in history. Is it reasonable that 10% of our country’s citizens are already paying 80% of its taxes, and yet liberal legislators and their supporters insist that is still not enough? Is it fair to give tax refunds and handouts to people who never pay into the system themselves? That’s not democracy. It’s socialism. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that socialism doesn’t work.

Hello? Does anyone remember the USSR?

And what happened to our Constitution? I thought it was our government’s Constitutional responsibility to protect its people, not to take from Peter to give to Paul. That is the role of charitable organizations, ministries, and churches.

While we’re at it, what happened to parents actively teaching their children the values of personal accountability, hard work, and fiscal frugality? The media now overloads us with sensationalist images of those who cheat the system through sleazy lawyers, exploit outdated beliefs to leech money they haven’t worked for, spend money like drunken sailors on things they can’t afford, and evade responsibility to support their lifestyles.

At the same time, these very people are celebrated with media attention, and the cult of celebrity brainwashes the uninformed into believing that such behavior is not only acceptable, but worthy of emulation. And these people are voting!?! I can’t help but think that all those lazy parents who use the TV as a babysitter have left the rest of us to suffer the consequences.

I’ve worked hard to get where I am in life, and it has not been easy. So I ask you… If I achieve a modicum of success through my hard work, personal accountability, and persistence--should I be punished for it?